On the Performance Evaluation of State-of-the-art Rate Control Algorithms for Practical Video Coding and Transmission Systems

The existing rate control (RC) algorithms are actually evaluated using single objectives, however many aspects can jointly affect the performances of practical video coding and transmission systems. In this paper, we first identify the key factors for RC performance assessment, and then introduce the joint RC performance (JRCP) evaluation method for comprehensive consideration of involved many objectives. Second, we investigate the effective strategies to normalize each item from the comparative perspective to make them aggregated for fair comparison. Finally, we conduct experiments based on the latest H.265/HEVC reference software to evaluate the performances of different state-of-the-art RC algorithms, and demonstrate the usage and applicability of proposed method. Additionally, the weighting strategy can be easily and flexibly configured according to the particular demands of practical video applications. Based on the proposed method, we also would like to draw the attention from the video coding and communication community, and the video encoder and transmission systems can be better optimized for visual experience enhancement in practical systems.